Okay. This is a story that Thundercracker has pestered me with for some time. lately quite viciously. I am not sure how far this one will go, but read and review and i might carry on if enough like what i have begun. I am still working on On Seeker Habits, dont worry, i have just had the things so messed up in my head that i needed to begin write this one. :) now that i have this out of my head there is room for the little seekerling and its verse again :P Take care.
"The frag?" Skywarp asked aloud when he watched the silhouette of the blue seeker he for millions of years had called his best friend disappear in the distance.
Starscream standing beside him looked just as incredulous at the leaving seeker as the teleporter self.
Skywarps question summed it up nicely for the transformers on both sides that had witnessed what had transpired before them just astroseconds before.
The battle had started just as normal; Megatron ordering the deceptions on a raid, and the autobots arriving to stop them in their doings.
Prime had charged Megatron as usual.
Prowl had calculated scenarios.
Ratchet had yelled at them to be careful.
And the Twins had eagerly thrown themselves into the fight.
Soon every 'bot and 'con was engaged in combat, the frontliners clashing in close hand to hand, while the snipers would hide and shoot their targets either out of the sky to make it easier on the ground troops, or to stall the advance of ground mechs from the opposite fraction.
Then the seekers had arrived, also as usual.
And the Twins had decided to play with the jets.
Nothing new at all.
Or that was what the most thought.
Until something strange happened.
Some just dismissed it as luck, others began to wonder…
Thundercracker had been firmly targeted by the twins, both attempting to jump the blue seeker, to take him out of the air.
But to their surprise, and every other autobot following the happening in the air, the blue seeker evaded in a maneuver that should not have been possible for a mech his size and with the kind of speed they knew this particular seeker was capable of going.
Something was amiss.
The twins looked at each other greatly bemused as they descended to the ground, not managing to land on their target, not even being close.
In the air the blue seeker just carried on, like nothing had happened.
Meeting up with his trine Thundercracker valiantly defended their ground troops and it seemed that for once the decepticons would be victorious.
At least that was, until one of the snipers got a lock on the blue seeker and tried a lucky shot.
The shot went wide, and instead of hitting the thrusters it ricocheted to impact with the seekers throat.
The next thing Thundercracker had known was that he was flat on the ground, surprisingly whole and almost undamaged.
"'Cracker?" a voice called beside him.
Skywarp, of course.
Smiling to his long-time friend Thundercracker found his footing and rose from the ground where he had laid.
"I'm fine, Warp. Don't worry." The blue seeker said to console the worried expression on the black and purple seekers faceplate.
Unfortunately all it did was to worry his trinemate even more, and caused a frown to occur on the carefree faceplates.
Because the voice saying those words was not the usual baritone of Thundercracker, no it was a lot more high-pitched. Not as much as Starscream's, and definitely NOT Thundercracker.
The blue seeker instantly touched a servo to his vocalizer, cursing when he felt the damage there.
'Frag it! Why? Why now? After all this time, why right now?' The blue seeker asked himself as he looked around to see the countless optics looking at him.
Powerful jet engines were heard before they saw Starscream land to see what had caused the fighting on both sides to stop. Megatron was too far away with the Prime, still fighting and wanted to know why his troops was standing and ogling.
Seeing the subject of interest was his two idiotic trinemates, the trineleader sighed.
Dissolving the group around the now three seekers quite easily with his screechy voice and some well-placed shots from his nullrays, Starscream turned to face his trinemates.
Thundercracker was still favoring his throat while Skywarp was staring at the blue seeker like he had never seen the other before.
"What happened?" he asked the two.
"I-. He-. Uh. I think that there is something wrong with 'Crackers vocalizer." Skywarp finally managed to put together.
At that Starscream saw the wound that Thundercracker covered with his servo.
"Let me have a look." He offered.
But to both his and Skywarps surprise the blue seeker shook his head in denial.
"Don't be silly Thundercracker." Starscream admonished.
"You sound awful." Skywarp supported his trineleader, not able to forget the NOT Thundercracker-like sound that his friend had talked in.
Once again the blue seeker shook his head, all while he backed away from his trinemates.
Frowning Starscream took a step forward.
The next klik the blue seeker had engaged his thrusters and had taken to the sky.
Shocked the two seekers on the ground just watched their trinemate leave.
And then we are back to Skywarps incredulous outburst.
What the Pit was going on with the blue seeker?
Thundercracker vocalized several cybertronian and even earth based curses as he flew away from the battleground.
Now and then checking that he was not followed he engaged a special scrambler he had had from the time before Vos fell when he knew that none of the others had followed him.
Setting his course to the continent of Africa the blue seeker contemplated what to do.
Megatron would be pissed, and he knew that at some point Starscream and/or Skywarp would try to find him. When they realized that nothing they did would be able to locate the blue seeker he knew that Megatron would go and blame Starscream.
Starscream would then suffer for something that the SIC for once had had nothing to do with. Thundercracker felt bad about the troubles this all would cause.
This meant that he had to return before everything went to the pit, but again not before any evidence that would show the blue seekers deception through all these thousands of vorns was erased.
He hoped that the damaged vocord-disruptor would have healed when that time came.
And that his cover had not been blown completely.
The fight had dissolved when Thundercracker went AWOL and decepticons and autobots parted with loud murmuring among them.
Megatron was pissed. And Starscream cleverly evaded the tyrant as long as he could. Unfortunately he was needed to debrief the officers about the whole happening, since he had been the only one close enough when the blue seeker had just up and left. And well, Thundercracker WAS his trinemate.
Landing on the flight deck he awaited Skywarps transformation before turning to the teleporter.
"Find Him 'Warp!" Starscream hissed, not in the mood to deal with anything his trinemate would throw his way.
Skywarp wisely sensed the mood and just nodded before he leapt and transformed to his jet once again.
::I'll find him Scree. Don't worry.:: was transmitted through the trines channel as the jet blasted away from the Nemesis.
Sighing Starscream turned to enter the sunken decepticon headquarters, sensing his doom approaching.
Entering the command center, Starscream was not surprised to see that every officer was present and eagerly watching him walk to his spot around the table.
Oh yes, he knew that they knew what was coming at him. And they didn't even try to hide the malicious smirks.
Across the table Onslaught leered at him when he sat down. Beside him Hook shied away from him like he was cosmic rust.
Suddenly he greatly missed his brooding trinemate. Thundercracker would nurse his damaged wings when he returned from his usual spats with Megatron and ease the stiffness out of his frame, while patient and calmly listen to whatever argument Starscream had lost.
But Thundercracker was not there.
He had left them.
Had left Starscream.
Feeling depressing thoughts overtake his mind he viciously forced them back.
Now was not the time to brood.
He needed to be alert if he was to dodge the incoming accusations and hope to remain functioning.
It took the black and purple seeker almost a whole human day before he returned to the decepticon headquarters. Starscream was in their shared quarters nursing his damages from the awful meeting with Megatron and the rest of the command staff.
Sure he had been blamed for the whole ordeal, even the raid that had failed miserably when the thing with Thundercracker occurred – something that Starscream had argued that he could possibly not have avoided, since he didn't know what the frag was wrong in it all.
Receiving only one ping as Skywarp landed in the base Starscream's hope faltered.
Surely the teleporter would have found his best friend through all this time. The two had been almost glued together these many many vorns, Skywarp knowing all the special places Thundercracker liked to depart to when he needed to be alone.
But when the door to their quarters opened it was only the teleporter that entered.
The fact alone that Skywarp didn't teleport in, but used the door told a lot about the mood the black and purple seeker was in.
Meeting his trineleaders faltering expression the teleporter uttered
"I could not find him." Disbelief and misery filled his optics and he watched the slumped form of the other seeker showing the same emotions.
"Nothing?" Starscream weakly asked.
"Nothing. Not a single trace. It is like he has left the planet." Skywarp told, optics pleading the other to tell that their blue trinemate had not abandoned them finally.
Skywarp had been searching every spot he had known to find the blue seeker before. But when those didn't reveal his missing trinemate he began to travel up and down, slowly mapping the planet from north to south, hoping to get a ping from the seekers special signature.
His movements had of course been detected several times by the autobots, and he had had some run-ins with the slaggers, disrupting his methodical search. Surely they had not believed his claim, that his actions had nothing to do with them, the humans and any new scheme of Megatrons. The teleporter had not cared what the idiots thought of his actions then, and when they had drawn their guns he had just left.
The situation had happened on each continent this miserable planet had, and the last time one of the autoslaggers had managed to singe one of his wings severely enough that he had to return to the Nemesis, his flight sensors had gone completely awry.
Exhausted the teleporter dumped his frame on his berth to let Starscream access the damages to his wing, wincing when the singed sensors overstimulated his CPU from the brief touches.
"Ow. Careful Scree." He pleaded.
The trineleader just ignored the words. There was no easy painless way to fix the over sensitized malfunctioning sensors.
"So you got nothing at all? Not the slightest unusual detection?" Starscream asked while working.
Easing more and more, as each of the malfunctioning sensors was turned off the black and purple seeker contemplated every signal he had detected on his patrol that had turned out to not be Thundercracker.
"Uh. No. Not before the slaggers fried my wing sensors. But I am not sure if the signal was a malfunction or actually there at that point." He mused.
"Where was that?" Starscream asked.
"Africa." He answered.
Please review.:)